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[Badgers]

Two coronavirus variants have merged – here's what you need to know

A single genome sequence has shown that the UK and California variants of the coronavirus have combined into a heavily mutated hybrid. Here’s what you need to know about this recombinant variant of the coronavirus

www.newscientist.com

 

[William of Walworth]

Badgers : That article looks good and well written enough for a non-scientist like me to (start to!) understand , but I suspect we'd need the thoughts of Urbans such as elbows and 2hats and prunus to be able to get towards any possible conclusions ....

 

[elbows]

Badgers : That article looks good and well written enough for a non-scientist like me to (start to!) understand , but I suspect we'd need the thoughts of Urbans such as elbows and 2hats and prunus to be able to get towards any possible conclusions .... :reek:

Presently I have nothing more to say than when I wrote the following post earlier in February: #241

 

[William of Walworth]

Presently I have nothing more to say than when I wrote the following post earlier in February: #241

Thanks for that, I must have missed that earlier post from you.

 

[teuchter]

There's not been much talk of Sweden lately. Prompted by some comments from some friends there (saying how it's good that there's no real lockdown but people are being careful, and posting photos of themselves going cross country skiing) I had a look at the numbers.

They seem to be seeing a crash in death rates much like the UK. But their cases numbers are on the rise again and I won't be surprised if that's what is around the corner for the UK too.

 

[elbows]

Oops.

Mexico has admitted that its controversial coronavirus tsar, Hugo López-Gatell, is in hospital with Covid after initially calling such reports “fake news”.

López-Gatell, who is a 52-year-old epidemiologist, tested positive for Covid on 20 February and has been in hospital since last Wednesday. But authorities only revealed the fact on Sunday after press reports that the health ministry initially denied.

On Sunday night health official Ruy López Ridaura said he hoped López-Gatell could be discharged on Monday or Tuesday and claimed he was doing well after being admitted to hospital last week with a “moderate” case and requiring supplemental oxygen.

López-Gatell has faced heavy criticism for undermining the use of face masks and carrying out insufficient testing. In January he caused outrage by taking a beach holiday in Oaxaca despite government calls for citizens to remain at home. During his trip López-Gatell was photographed on a famous Pacific coast beach without a mask.

4h ago 11:51

 

[cupid_stunt]

 

[elbows]

Over a year since I got some interesting reactions by mentioning anal or rectal swabs, we have this...

5h ago 10:59

“Some Japanese reported to our embassy in China that they received anal swab tests, which caused a great psychologial pain,” Kato told a news conference. It was not known how many Japanese citizens received such tests for coronavirus, he said.

Some Chinese cities are using samples taken from the anus to detect potential Covid-19 infections as China steps up screening to make sure no potential carrier of the new coronavirus is missed.

China’s foreign ministry denied last month that US diplomats in the country had been required to take anal swab tests for Covid-19, following media reports that some had complained about the procedure.

 

[yield]

Not sure if this has already been posted?

Finland Had a Patent-Free COVID-19 Vaccine Nine Months Ago — But Still Went With Big Pharma
Jacobin 02.28.2021

“We felt it was our duty to start developing this type of alternative,” says professor Kalle Saksela, chair of the Department of Virology at the University of Helsinki. “Back in the spring, I still thought that surely some public entity will get involved and start pushing it forward. Turns out that no situation is urgent enough to compel the state to start actively pursuing something like this.”

Saksela’s team has had a patent-free COVID-19 vaccine ready since May 2020, which they dubbed “the Linux of vaccines” in a nod to the famous open-source operating system that also originated from Finland. The work is based on publicly available research data and predicated on the principle of sharing all new findings in peer-reviewed journals.

The research team includes some of Finland’s scientific heavyweights, such as Academy professor Seppo Ylä-Herttuala of the A. I. Virtanen Institute, a former president of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, and academician Kari Alitalo, a foreign associated member of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States. They believe their nasal spray, built on well-established technology and know-how, is safe and highly effective.

“It’s a finished product, in the sense that the formulation will no longer change in any way with further testing,” Saksela says. “With what we have, we could inoculate the whole population of Finland tomorrow.”
"The Finnish vaccine provides a striking case study of the many ways in which the contemporary patent-based funding model has slowed down vaccine development."

But instead of exploring the potential of intellectual property–free research, Finland, like other Western countries, has continued to follow the default policy of the last several decades: to lean fully on Big Pharma.

In the mainstream narrative, the first-generation COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca are typically presented as an illustration of how markets incentivize and accelerate vital innovation. In reality, the fact that the profit motive is the overriding force shaping medical research has been devastating — particularly in a global pandemic. The Finnish vaccine provides a striking case study of the many ways in which the contemporary patent-based funding model has slowed down vaccine development, and how it currently hampers the possibility of conducting effective mass-inoculation campaigns.

 

[weltweit]

Not sure if this has already been posted?

Finland Had a Patent-Free COVID-19 Vaccine Nine Months Ago — But Still Went With Big Pharma
Jacobin 02.28.2021

I hadn't seen it before. Crazy that they are not using it .. and spreading it wider ..

 

[Aladdin]

These two....

LOST

Court rejects challenge by Waters and O’Doherty to Covid laws

Court of Appeal says case over constitutionality of laws failed to raise issues of substance

www.irishtimes.com

 

[yield]

I hadn't seen it before. Crazy that they are not using it .. and spreading it wider ..

Ties into your thread weltweit. COVAX, the mechanism to spread vaccines to the world..

 

[teqniq]

Things look really bad in Brazil:
(thread)

 

[Orang Utan]

Is Bolsonaro to blame for this?

 

[teqniq]

In part, I think.

 

[teuchter]

Just to put Brazil in some context

 

[Teaboy]

Is Bolsonaro to blame for this?

Like in the States there does seem to be a lot of conflict between federal and local authorities and all the finger pointing that comes with it. Though, as the graph above this post shows, having a highly centralised system is not necessarily going to be more effective.

 

[Pickman's model]

Just to put Brazil in some context

View attachment 257224

Comparison not context, context is the circumstances forming the setting for an event. And what happens with covid in the UK has no bearing on what happens with covid in brazil

 

[teuchter]

Comparison not context, context is the circumstances forming the setting for an event. And what happens with covid in the UK has no bearing on what happens with covid in brazil

Yes it does. Stop talking nonsense.

 

[Pickman's model]

Yes it does. Stop talking nonsense.

 

[kabbes]

Just to put Brazil in some context

View attachment 257224

It’s an example where a straightforward comparison of the death rate is not that meaningful, owing to the demographics of the population. For example, 16.4% of the UK population is 65+ versus 9.5% of the Brazilian population, meaning that you might expect the UK death rate to be about 65% higher even if all other factors were held constant.

 

[teuchter]

It’s an example where a straightforward comparison of the death rate is not that meaningful, owing to the demographics of the population. For example, 16.4% of the UK population is 65+ versus 9.5% of the Brazilian population, meaning that you might expect the UK death rate to be about 65% higher even if all other factors were held constant.

Well, of course, but we can see that the situation in Brazil is not currently orders of magnitude worse than what has been experienced in various European nations, which is useful context in understanding the scale of things.

 

[elbows]

I'm not convinced that we find it easy to talk about obesity properly. I'm certainly not that confident about aspectss of the subject as I have put my foot in it in the past. And thats a problem as it seems likely that its a very important factor in this pandemic.

“The correlation between obesity and mortality rates from Covid-19 is clear and compelling,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“Investment in public health and coordinated, international action to tackle the root causes of obesity is one of the best ways for countries to build resilience in health systems post-pandemic: we urge all countries to seize this moment.”

Covid deaths high in countries with more overweight people, says report

Governments urged to prioritise obese people for vaccinations over greater risk of death from coronavirus

www.theguardian.com

 

[IC3D]

I'd say the next contributing factor after age easily.

 

[weltweit]

I wonder what specifically they defined as "overweight"?

 

[IC3D]

I wonder what specifically they defined as "overweight"?

25-29kg/m2 Id have thought

 

[kabbes]

I'm not convinced that we find it easy to talk about obesity properly. I'm certainly not that confident about aspectss of the subject as I have put my foot in it in the past. And thats a problem as it seems likely that its a very important factor in this pandemic.



View attachment 257299

Covid deaths high in countries with more overweight people, says report

Governments urged to prioritise obese people for vaccinations over greater risk of death from coronavirus

www.theguardian.com

It’s quite hard to disaggregate obesity from lots of other factors when doing a simple correlation analysis, though. The countries on the left of that table are all poorer countries whilst those on the right are richer countries and that implies that there are lots of systematic differences between left and hand right hand tables beyond obesity.

Now, I would be amazed if obesity wasn’t a factor because it is a risk factor for many health conditions. Obesity, I am dimly aware, triggers off lots of changes to the immune system, which makes it the perfect candidate when trying to understand epidemiological drivers. I’m just saying that a comparison of death rates with obesity rates isn’t going to convince me of much by itself without some further suggestion that the specific mechanism has been identified.

 

[teuchter]

It's a bit annoying that that guardian article doesn't provide a link to the report it is discussing.

 

[William of Walworth]

It's a bit annoying that that guardian article doesn't provide a link to the report it is discussing.

That article might have been recently edited, perhaps, but if you click the World Obesity Foundation link in the first paragraph (of the Guardian report), you get to the W.O.F. report a little way down the home page.

 

[teuchter]

That article might have been recently edited, perhaps, but if you click the World Obesity Foundation link in the first paragraph (of the Guardian report), you get to the W.O.F. report a little way down the home page.

Thanks. Maybe because I was looking at it on mobile. Report link -

https://www.worldobesityday.org/assets/downloads/COVID-19-and-Obesity-The-2021-Atlas.pdf

They do address the correlation with wealth thing. And they say that after adjusting for it, the link is still clear. I'm not a statistician though so am unable to assess the reasoning.